Some time ago The Post published an article noting the lowest-paid jobs in the U.S. and designating social work as the lowest paid. This was information obtained from the U.S. Department of Labor, which designates “social worker” as any human service worker.
Professional social workers with bachelor’s in social work degrees earn much more and are in high demand.
There is such an extreme shortage of people holding master’s degrees in social work that there are multiple programs that provide loan reimbursement to students who earn master’s degrees with clinical specializations.
The Daily Beast conducted a study recently to compare salary levels with job availability and identified the following as the 10 majors that don’t pay: Journalism, horticulture, agriculture, advertising, fashion design, child and family studies, music, mechanical engineering technology, chemistry and nutrition. Note that social work is not among them.
Students should follow their dreams. Students who excel in fields, and can create their own jobs, will succeed in whatever they do.
But success requires high grades and 10,000 hours of practice. (My two most successful friends were high school dropouts — but they were exceptional, and by 16 had amassed far more than 10,000 hours of expertise, one in writing and performing music and the other in puppet making.)
But most students must consider the job market when they select a major. Throughout my career I have taught master’s students who were finally entering their field of choice, after disappointment in fields that they believed were more promising and lucrative.
Susan Sarnoff is an associate professor of social work.
